About ITTC
The ITTC Vision
To be a global leader and strategic partner in the creation and commercialization of innovative technologies in telecommunications, information systems, bioinformatics, media innovation and radar.
ITTC Mission Statement
- To advance knowledge and create innovative technologies in telecommunications, information systems, bioinformatics, and radar
- To educate and train students for technology leadership;
- To transfer knowledge and innovative technologies to Kansas companies and national industries by providing an excellent interdisciplinary research and development environment.
Who We Are
The Information and Telecommunication Technology Center contains eight laboratories on the University of Kansas campus. Six laboratories are located in Nichols Hall on West Campus, with the seventh and eighth, the e-Learning Design Laboratory and the Media Innovaiton Lab housed in the Dole Human Development Center. The e-Learning Design Lab is a joint creation between ITTC and KU's Center for Research on Learning, which is also in Dole. The Media Innovation Lab is a partnership between ITTC and the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
ITTC has more than 45 faculty and staff researchers and 135 students who develop technologies and advance knowledge in the areas of bioinformatics, information technology, telecommunications, media innovation, radar systems and remote sensing.
We excel in basic research, technology development, and technology commercialization through the support of the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC), private industry, and federal and state programs. Federal grants provide 72 percent of ITTC's funding, while the state invests 17 percent. Industry furnishes an additional 9 percent and a variety of sponsors make up the final category entitled "other" that provides 2 percent of the more than $4.2 million annual budget.
While we are growing in scope and capacity, our project selection continues to focus on quality projects. We want to work on projects that offer the greatest opportunity to advance knowledge and to develop and transfer technologies. On average, we collaborate with 20 companies a year. To learn more about working with ITTC, please click here2.
Existing companies collaborate with ITTC for research and development, realizing that targeted research reduces costs and improves service to consumers. Fledgling companies, seeking to develop new technologies, draw on the faculty and staff. Technologies developed by ITTC foster industry growth and often provide the core for new companies.
"We're looking to collaborate with companies that have a good business plan and a good idea and that can use our technical skills and expertise," says Keith Braman, ITTC's Director of Technology Commercialization.
What We Do
ITTC technologies have diverse applications in the business, biomedical, educational, agricultural, and financial areas. And while this list is not all-inclusive, it does provide a sense of how information technology is altering the way we live, work, communicate, and learn.
Research in the Bioinformatics and Computational Life Sciences Laboratory (BCLSL) ranges from analysis of genome sequence data to gene expression analysis using methods in artificial intelligence. Life-sciences research is dependent on information technology to process, analyze, and present biological data in new, meaningful and efficient ways. This research, such as microarray data analysis leads to improvements in people's health, longevity, and productivity. Research in the Communications and Networking Systems Laboratory increases the speed and improves the quality of communication systems interconnected via photonics, radio, and/or other technologies. The National Networking Testbed project is finding more available space on the radio frequency (RF) spectrum, using that space more efficiently, and evaluating new wireless technologies. The Computer Systems Design Laboratory (CSDL) focuses on the design, implementation and verification of systems whose primary components include computers. Designers of complex electronic systems, such as computers, must develop individual pieces while making sure they are complementary to the other parts of the system. Different vocabulary and engineering processes make communication between them difficult. The system-level design language, Rosetta, allows these different parts of the whole to interact with one another. This interaction allows a greater trust in the correctness of the design and fewer errors in the actual design.
ITTC is changing the way teachers teach and students learn by the creation of enhanced learning environments in the e-Learning Design Laboratory (eDL). The Intelligent Systems Laboratory (ISL) is developing systems that explore data for new insights and allow more intelligent information retrieval. For example, ISL's ChatTrack helps curb inappropriate and deceptive usage on the Internet. Researchers in the Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL) are developing and evaluating the mathematical theory and algorithms associated with optimal space-time transmit waveforms for multi-static, bistatic, and mono static radar systems. Of particular interest is the development of adaptive (i.e., data-driven) space-time, transmit waveforms.
Our Researchers
Our faculty are able to provide this breadth of research activity because of our diversity and multi-disciplinary approach. We understand that new technologies are not developed within a vacuum or by one lone individual. We bring together a number of experts and give them the facilities to develop their research. ITTC-affiliated investigators from aerospace engineering, medicinal chemistry, computer science, computer engineering, education, electrical engineering, geography, and mathematics conduct research at the Center. While we do not offer any classes, we have a number of graduate students, primarily in the electrical engineering and computer science department, working at the Center and gaining practical experience under the direction of faculty researchers.
"ITTC educates the next generation of technology leaders with hands-on-experience, working in teams with state-of-the-art equipment on significant, practical problems. The technology transfer aspects of the Center provide our students with a window into real-world problems and issues, " says Victor Frost, ITTC's former director.